About the service
A mechanical watch almost never fails all at once. First it gains a minute a day, then it stops at night when it lies dial up, then the crown starts turning without winding anything — and behind all three symptoms there is usually the same thing: oil that dried out years ago and metal dust ground into the pivots. So I do not quote a price over the phone. The movement comes out of the case, goes under the microscope, and only after I can see what is actually worn do I tell you what the job costs. A full service and a single replaced wheel are very different bills, and adding them up by guesswork would be unfair to you.
The work itself is unhurried. The movement is stripped to the last screw, the plates and wheels pass through the ultrasonic bath in several changes of fluid, and the pallet fork and the balance with its hairspring are cleaned separately by hand — a shared bath does them no good. Assembly goes on fresh lubricant, each grade to its own point: thin oil on the fast wheels, heavier grease on the barrel wall and the keyless works, a treatment where oil likes to creep away from the jewel it was put on. Then the watch goes on the timing machine, and I bring the rate in over several days in several positions, not in ten minutes. A movement that runs perfectly flat on the bench can still lose two minutes a day on a wrist.
Everything outside the movement is mine as well: a cracked crystal, a worn crown that no longer grips, a bent stem, tired gaskets, a case gone dull. Tell me how the watch is actually worn — a desk and a workshop are two different regimes for the same calibre, and they deserve different regulation.
What the work includes:
— diagnosis and full strip-down of the movement, with a written list of worn parts;
— ultrasonic cleaning in several baths, hand cleaning of the escapement and the balance;
— fresh lubrication point by point, oils and greases by grade and by dose;
— rate regulation on a timing machine in several positions, checked over days;
— replacement of crystal, crown, stem, gaskets and worn wheels or jewels;
— cleaning of the case and bracelet, polishing only by agreement;
— pressure testing for watches that claim water resistance;
— service of pocket watches and mechanical alarm clocks.
Terms and honest warnings. An ordinary service takes a week or two; the guarantee on my work is a year, counted from the day you collect the watch. An opened case loses the water resistance it used to have until new gaskets are fitted, so a watch does not go into water straight after a repair, even if it did before. Parts for rare movements sometimes have to be made from scratch, and that stretches the term — I say so before starting, not afterwards. And I do not re-polish an old factory finish without the owner's consent: polishing takes off metal, and with the metal it takes off the history of the thing.
The work itself is unhurried. The movement is stripped to the last screw, the plates and wheels pass through the ultrasonic bath in several changes of fluid, and the pallet fork and the balance with its hairspring are cleaned separately by hand — a shared bath does them no good. Assembly goes on fresh lubricant, each grade to its own point: thin oil on the fast wheels, heavier grease on the barrel wall and the keyless works, a treatment where oil likes to creep away from the jewel it was put on. Then the watch goes on the timing machine, and I bring the rate in over several days in several positions, not in ten minutes. A movement that runs perfectly flat on the bench can still lose two minutes a day on a wrist.
Everything outside the movement is mine as well: a cracked crystal, a worn crown that no longer grips, a bent stem, tired gaskets, a case gone dull. Tell me how the watch is actually worn — a desk and a workshop are two different regimes for the same calibre, and they deserve different regulation.
What the work includes:
— diagnosis and full strip-down of the movement, with a written list of worn parts;
— ultrasonic cleaning in several baths, hand cleaning of the escapement and the balance;
— fresh lubrication point by point, oils and greases by grade and by dose;
— rate regulation on a timing machine in several positions, checked over days;
— replacement of crystal, crown, stem, gaskets and worn wheels or jewels;
— cleaning of the case and bracelet, polishing only by agreement;
— pressure testing for watches that claim water resistance;
— service of pocket watches and mechanical alarm clocks.
Terms and honest warnings. An ordinary service takes a week or two; the guarantee on my work is a year, counted from the day you collect the watch. An opened case loses the water resistance it used to have until new gaskets are fitted, so a watch does not go into water straight after a repair, even if it did before. Parts for rare movements sometimes have to be made from scratch, and that stretches the term — I say so before starting, not afterwards. And I do not re-polish an old factory finish without the owner's consent: polishing takes off metal, and with the metal it takes off the history of the thing.
